I’m currently at the end of beginner grade 3 and still gathering a repertoire of songs.
A couple of comments on this performance. First, I stuck to simple strumming because I hope to add a track of the solo electric guitar parts as another layer to this audio sometime in the near future.
I dropped the song to the key of C. My voice just can’t reach Glenn Frey’s upper range. Even in C I struggled, as will be obvious when you listen. I moved the intro chords to the 5th fret so I could mimic the alternating high-string variations in the original introduction and dropped to the appropriate open chords for the rest of the song.
Before attempting this performance I grabbed a drum backing track for this song and discovered that if I didn’t try to sing I could sync my playing with the drum track no problem, but whenever I tried to add vocals my rhythm would get messed up in the middle of the song. I finally just dropped the drum track. I hope this is a temporary problem. Anyone else have this type of struggle? My only comfort is that I’m a terrible singer and expect long-term to be playing accompaniment with someone else who has a decent voice.
Oddly enough, singing and strumming along to my own internal clock ended up making the song almost exactly as long as the album recording of the original. Go figure.
Feel free to make any criticisms or suggestions about how to improve my playing, or singing, but honestly I’ll pay a lot more attention to the former than the latter.
Good work - especially for BG3. Were you playing before starting the course? Rhythm and changes very smooth.
Not a terrible singer by any stretch.
Singing and playing has always been difficult for me, so I just record each part separately on the very rare occasions I sing. I enjoy the production side of things.
I think it’s getting that rhythm locked in with the drums so that you’re almost not having to think about it at all and so can solely concentrate on the vocals. That only comes with repetition - which has it’s own boredom challenges.
Nice work.
Thanks for the encouragement! I played as a teen but sold off my Guild when I went to college, bought a 12-string in college but sold that off when I ran out of $$ in grad school and stopped playing until I semi-retired in 2024. I probably should have just practiced more with the drums before recording. I wonder if people generally get more nervous when they know they are recording – or even worse, watch themselves being recorded while they are playing – and that degrades timing and muscle memory.
I did try using a capo but didn’t like the sound of the chords up a 4th while singing down a 5th. It was easier to hit the right notes while singing with the open chords in C. When I add the lead guitar parts I was planning to go up a 4th but that will depend on how well I can pull off the end part of the solo with my fat fingers.
I think you did really well! You figured out little work-arounds to successfully “get it like you want it”. Your vocals sounded quite nice to me. And your song choice was a great classic song that I really love. Good job!
that’s a big thing, and also playing and singing . 
… really great 